For Older Adults, It's the Quality of Friendships, Not Quantity, That Improves Well-Being

A study in Psychology and Aging found well-being in seniors has a closer relationship with people's feelings about their friends than their overall number of friends, reports StudyFinds . The researchers discovered older adults may have generally fewer friends, yet they also tend to be closer with those friends and engage with them more often face to face. "Stereotypes of aging tend to paint older adults in many cultures as sad and lonely," said the University of Leeds' Wändi Bruine de Bruin. "But the research shows that older adults' smaller networks didn't undermine social satisfaction and well-being. In fact, older adults tend to report better well-being than younger adults." Study participants were asked to count the number of people from various areas of their lives with whom they had "regular contact in the past six months," and to rate their feelings of well-being over the past 30 days. Despite having fewer friends on average, age did not correlate with the number of "close friends" among older adults, while younger adults reported more general acquaintances due to social media networking sites. Only the reported number of close friendships was significantly associated with social satisfaction and well-being, which held steady after accounting for the number of family members, neighbors, or acquaintances each participant reported.